Ultimate Guide to Building and Designing a Website

While investing in building a website, you need to know—Where to start? Website design and development are complicated processes. But in today's era, you've got many options to do it. You can either go to a web development company or create a website alone. However, one must understand that your website serves as your business's online representation. To make a successful business and build a brand, website owners must be cautious while designing and developing their websites. Nowadays, The average visitor will judge your website in less than a fraction of a second. If you want to create an impact, you must be aware of the science behind converting your users and enabling them to act in your website's favor.

Without a good design, your website will likely fail to attract your target audience. You must ensure that you follow all the principles & guidelines—from making a site that loads quickly to ensuring that your website is thoughtful and user-friendly—which will guide your users towards your desired outcome. This article will discuss all the steps, from thoughtfully designing your website to developing and deploying it.

These are the steps That, if you follow, will guide you to build a website that will improve your conversion rates and help you gain online success :

• Define your Goals & the purpose of your website's existence. 

• Gather your content, be it text, images or videos, i.e. what information is your customer looking for?

• Decide the platform: Select custom websites or website builders like WordPress and Shopify.

• Sketch a digital layout of your website—Create wireframes and create prototypes from low fidelity to high.

• Start building your website's architecture and site maps; also, start adding pages to optimize user experience.

• Launch your website | Conclusion

  1. Define your Goals & the purpose of your website’s existence

You need to define your goals and the purpose of your website. Sounds difficult? Just answer these three questions :

I. Who is my target audience?

II. Why are they using my website? or to better frame it "What do they want from my website?

III. What are the actions they must take to get my desired outcome?

Once you have answered these three questions. Now, Elaborate your website by finding out Why you are creating your website? Are you creating your website for your business purpose or you want to showcase your portfolio to the others? If your website is a business website, then understand in which domain you fall, whether it's a logistics company, Or is it an ecommerce website. Or is it a recruitment website? Because the sort of design architecture you will follow completely depends on what kind of business you own?

Defining goals and purpose for your website.

Ecommerce website : If you have an e-commerce website, then your end goal will be to make people buy your physical goods or digital products. Your ecommerce website. will be a tool to run your business. through which you can process orders, accept payments, manage shipping and logistics and provide support to your customer.

Business Website: If you want to build a business website, then your end goal will be creating a brand—an online face of your business. Your business website would be an online extension to reach your potential customers.

Portfolio Website : Your portfolio website could be a medium to show. your work to your potential client. It must be influential enough to inspire your client to fall in love with your work or the service that you provide.

So, to conclude your website must know who is your target audience? What is the desired action that you want to perform from your target audience? and how you can make The desired action of your audience easy. Now, based on your target audience and your business type, understand how your website can solve their problem. The solution that you are offering must be the purpose of your website, And that must be your vision. As you deploy your website for the first time and after certain iterations or certain updates your objective and vision must update itself according to your website.

      2. Gather your content be it text, images or videos  i.e what information is your customer looking for?

Gathering text, images, and videos for your site.

There is a saying in this digital world that says "Content is king in digital marketing". Most of the clients are unable to provide content for their website. In such cases Hiring a content writer or seeking help from a development agency could result in saving your time. A development agency can provide you a full package from designing your website to developing it to content writing and all. 

It's crucial to gather content for your website and that must include everything that will appear on your website like : 

• Text Content: The content includes all the things like the text that you want to show on your pages—home page, product pages, blogs and faqs—and your content must align with your brand values and your mission.

• Visual Content: "A picture is worth a thousand words" that being said — Most websites use images, videos, infographics and illustrations to provide their users a better user experience.

Your content and the way you organize it, is the wordsmith behind your website. And web designers are the architects that will set your site apart by offering branded content and unique online experience to the user. 

While you will create the content by just considering your perspective, Web designers and content writers are the experts on how to make your content engaging and how to present it in an easy to understand way to the visitors. 

In simple words, they can suggest a ton of creative ways to display information on the page, by using visuals or elements that interact with the users directly, to empower people to take an action that aligns with your company's desired outcome.

Pro Tip:

While preparing content for your website, focus on emphasizing the most crucial information rather than flooding your website with inconsequential content.

For instance, using few high-quality content & images is much more impactful and effective than overcrowding the entire webpage with confusing or low-quality content. Your content will vary depending on the type of website you're building.

• Online stores must be focused on providing detailed product information and high-quality images of that product, as users can't physically interact with the products yet. 

• Portfolio sites must be more oriented on visual media of your accomplishments and text that speaks about the projects that you were invested in. 

• Business websites must use diverse content like testimonials, product or service details, and industry blogs to showcase their dominance and experience. 

In a nutshell, your content must be original, engaging, relevant, concise, and easy to read.

    3.Decide the platform— Select custom website or website builders like wordpress and shopify.

It's a hot take whether you must go with custom website development or you must choose a website builder to create your website. Because both have their own advantages, If you are a beginner, in search of a solution that handles majority of the processes then website builder could be an option for you, while experienced users may prefer a more advanced solution.

Websie Builder Vs Custom-built Website

• Factors to consider if you want to choose website builder as your companion: 
  

Wordpress Pros & Cons

If you are in search of a solution that is easy to use, offers you with some predefined limited customization options, and has a bunch of pre-build templates to start with. So the choice is quite simple — If you are in search of a quick site creation tool without worrying about responsiveness, and a platform with monthly pricing options instead of making a one time investment — then website builders could be one of the possible options available.

Some of the popular website builders are WordPress, Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, and Weebly, with WordPress being the most widely used.

• Factors to consider if you want to choose custom website as your companion in website development: 

If you want a one-of-a-kind website that aligns perfectly with your brand’s identity and vision then a custom website is the option to go with. The flexibility and customizations that a custom website offers is unmatchable, all specific needs and unique functionalities are catered and could be integrated easily with the help of good development agency. 

Advantages Of Custom Website

Custom websites are built from scratch using coding languages like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and frameworks such as React, Angular, Vue.js, Node js or laravel, custom websites allow customizable superior user experience, bespoke design, and advanced features that align precisely with your business goals that prebuilt solutions could never provide. Custom websites also provide superior performance, security, and scalability, making them ideal for businesses with complex requirements and unique branding needs.

In summary, for businesses that are seeking for an unique experience & an high-performing online presence, then custom websites are typically the better option despite the initial complexity and investment.

    4.Sketch a digital layout of your website—Create wireframes and create prototypes from low fidelity to high

Sketching a digital layout of your website is quite crucial, it helps the developers and stakeholders understand what the final product will look like at the end. When a visitor visits your website then it takes less than a fraction of a second for the visitor to form an opinion about your website, your company and whether they will be choosing you or will skip you. There are several underlying factors of which you must take care of — For example the color choices, the type of content you are putting on your website, whether the images that you have chosen are eye catchy and do they complement the content on your website? 

These things ultimately decide whether your website is a stunning piece of artwork? Or is it a cluster-fuck of information? 

Here’s how you can work on sketching a perfect digital layout of your website in five easy steps: 

Create wireframes and prototypes for website design

Step 1: Defining Goals & Purpose of Your Website's Existence

If you are following through this article till now, then you might already have the answers to these questions :

I. Who is my target audience?

II. Why are they using my website? or to better frame it "What do they want from my website?"

III. What are the actions they must take to get my desired outcome?

IV. What information is your customer looking for? | Gathering the content of your website.

V. Which platform will I choose for my website — Am I going with custom website development or will I choose a website builder?

These foundational steps will ensure that you are on the right track and so far your website aligns with the objectives you aim to achieve.

Step 2: Sketch a Wireframe

Once you are done with your research and have properly planned the next steps, then you enter the design phase starting from making a sketch of your website known as a wireframe. A wireframe is a basic layout — that is either hand-drawn or digital — that shows the placement of the key elements on a screen without any detailed content, images, or visual elements. It's a simple version of the final webpage that helps Visually demonstrate the page layout without extensive design and programming.

How should I Start?

Start sketching by hand on a blank paper or use tools like figma and miro. Wireframes are mainly composed of rectangles and squares representing your website or app screens. This helps the stakeholders and other members invested in the project to visualize the overall look of the website without delving into the details. This makes designing less daunting because of the quick and early feedback by the team and the stakeholders involved.

Step 3: Lo-Fi Wireframe

Lo-Fi Wireframe

Once you have the initial hand drawn sketches then it's time to Advance towards a digital design by using a graphic software Like Figma or adobe. Create a document with dimensions matching a browser window, typically around 1200 px wide and use this space to position different sections and elements using square and rectangular shapes, creating a lo-fi wireframe, Also known as a low fidelity wireframe. This step begins to model the web page layout without details. Since this is an important step in designing you can either take help from a freelancer in order to make a wireframe for you or you can consult with a web development agency. 

Pro Tip: Be cautious of the services that are too cheap; quality work requires fair payment. In freelancing, It's a game of bidding and the lowest bid isn't always the best choice. Never gamble on your dream project by settling for less.

Step 4: Hi-Fi Wireframe

Hi-Fi Wireframe

Since you already have a rough sketch and a low fidelity wireframe, So now is the time to transform your lo-fi wireframe into a high-fidelity (hi-fi) mockups. In this stage a designer carefully crafts the design with the actual images, graphics, and text, and replaces the basic shapes of a lo-fi wireframe. A designer incorporates all the visual details, including proper colors and dynamic elements like hover effects, clickable elements, animations, etc.

Step 5: Testing Website Mockups & Building Prototypes

Website Mockups & Building Prototypes

Seek feedback from stakeholders and other team members for your mockups and ensure that the text and visual elements are correctly sized and positioned. A designer will carefully prototype your website so that you and the stakeholders can exactly understand the look and feel of the entire website even before development.

        5. Start building your website's architecture and site maps; also, start adding pages to optimize user experience.

Once you have a complete understanding of your website from gathering requirements to creating sketches of your website, it's time to focus on creating the site architecture and XML sitemap that will define the structural design of your website and proper indexing of your website on google. 

      1.Creating site map of your website | Website's Architecture :

A well-structured site architecture ensures visitors can easily find what they’re looking for, thus providing a great user experience. There are 3 Key elements that you must keep in mind while building your website architecture:

I. Maintaining a Proper Hierarchical Structure of your website :

Maintain a logical hierarchy of your pages — Identify the primary sections of your website like Home, About, Services, Blog, and Contact, Under each main category there must be a list of subcategories(individual pages) like under Services page you might have individual pages dedicated to Web Development, SEO, or Digital Marketing.

The underlying logic behind making a well structured site architecture is that the Main categories should lead to subcategories. Like in the example explained above that a main category like services must have subcategories like Web Development, SEO, or Digital Marketing. 

II. Intuitive Navigation: 

The navigation bar must be user-friendly, with clear and concise labels for each section. The pages that hold high importance must be easily accessible either through the main navigation or through internal links on related pages. One method to improve the UX of your navigation bar is to include icons in your dropdowns. Icons serve as visual aid to the user that can quickly communicate the purpose. They not only make the navigation dropdown more attractive, but they also increase the usability of the navbar. 

User-friendly navigation bar with clear labels and icons

Intuitive navigation bar with icons for better UX

III. Internal Linking:

Linking related pages with each other improves the overall navigation for the user and it also helps search engines to understand the structure of your website with ease. Tactics like these can enhance user engagement to a whole another level by guiding them to the relevant content that they are searching for.

If you’re unsure about creating a well structured site architecture for your website, then consider consulting a web development agency. Because professionals will not only help you design an in depth structure that is user-friendly but will also optimize your website for the search engines.

      2. Building XML Sitemap and SEO Considerations for Your Website

If you have a newly developed website that is made from scratch, then the chances are that all the pages on your site are dynamically created. In such cases it is important for you to structure your website and link all the pages well. Basically, you need a blueprint of your website to share it with search engines like google, so that your website can be quickly and easily be found and can be ranked by the search engines because Google not only just ranks websites — but also ranks webPages.

In a nutshell, XML sitemap is a file that lists all the pages of your website and provides metadata about each one. This file is crucial for SEO as it helps search engines understand the structure of your website and index your pages more effectively. 

      3.Start Adding Pages to Your Website

With your website's architecture and XML sitemap ready, it's time to develop the main pages of your website i.e homepage, about us page, contact page, etc. While making your website each team member plays a crucial role in ensuring the delivery of a seamless and professional website that is thoroughly tested. with all this done, now it's time to start adding pages : 

I. Homepage & About Page:

The Homepage and About Page sets the overall tone of your website, It's the designer and developer that collaborate together to make a piece of art that is visually appealing to the eyes, loads fast on the mobile and is mobile-friendly to the user. Other players like the content writer craft engaging and concise content that highlights your company's mission and unique values.

II. Other Pages | Product/Service/FAQ Pages & Blog:

For other pages like Product/Service/FAQ Pages and the Blog, the developer focuses on SEO and performance optimizations, The designer ensures proper UX/UI & makes the page attractive — and the content writer delivers detailed and engaging content that empowers user to take actions that aligns with the company's wellbeing. The project manager oversees the essential integrations.

Swiss Cheese Model

This team effort prevents errors that replicate the "Swiss cheese model," where each role acts as a layer of defense. The Swiss Cheese Model empowers organizations to avoid common pitfalls and chaos in the future. Because for the attackers "Chaos isn't a pit. Chaos is a ladder". The collaborative effort addresses the importance of minimizing latent errors which may result in chaotic accidents, if not taken proper care. 

    6. Launch Your Website: Conclusion

We hope that this article provides you with all the necessary details to build and design your website. Remember, choosing the right company for your project and business is crucial; the right choice can make or break your project. In this comprehensive guide, we've walked you through the complete journey of building and designing your website—from defining your goals and gathering content to deciding on a platform and sketching a digital layout.

Building a high-converting website involves much more than just programming. We've also covered the importance of developing a well-structured site architecture and creating wireframes (both lo-fi and hi-fi) to optimize user experience. Additionally, we have discussed the importance of XML sitemaps and having a dedicated in-house team of developers, designers, content writers, and other specialists before finally launching your website.

However, one crucial aspect we haven't discussed in detail is hosting. Proper hosting is essential for your website's performance, security, and reliability. To learn more about selecting the right hosting for your needs, refer to our detailed blog post on the topic.

By following these steps, you'll be well-equipped to create a website that not only attracts your target audience but also converts visitors into loyal customers.